Ethel Turner

“ To him, as to Nellie, this great white awful night brought back to memory the red red sunset and purple black shadows of the evening Judy had died. Like Nellie, he too fell on his knees, and prayed as he had only prayed that one other time in his life. And, like Nellie too, he prayed despairingly and without faith because that other prayer had not been answered. It was midnight when he had ridden back; he stopped there in the white, hushed garden till the moon began to fade out of the sky and a pale flush of rose crept up from the river. He was stiff and cold from his long watch ”

“ To wait for her smile and forgiveness till she was better—to wait—to miss it for ever, perhaps—was more than he could bear to contemplate. He wrote her a little eager loving note on the back of an envelope from his pocket; his sister, his dear, sweet old Meg, would she ever forgive him? ”

“ Pip groaned: he knew it himself, he would not give himself the slightest hope; and the bitterness was as of death itself.
But he saw Nellie was totally unfit to go into an infected house that night.
"To-morrow," he said; "come down to the cottage now; there's the nurse there, and the servants; you'll be ill yourself next."
"I want to be—oh, why can't I die?" she wailed. "It's all me, every bit of this, and God won't let me die." ”

“ They dare not tell Poppet to-night, her eyes were far too bright, her cheeks too flushed. So Bunty, at a whisper from Nell, picked her up and carried her off to bed again.
"I'll stop with you till you go to sleep," he said, feeling her chest heave. ”

“ The next second he was in the room kneeling by the bedside, and kissing the little hot hand on the counterpane.
"Just say you forgive me, Meg darling—darling!" he implored, the tears rolling down his cheeks. She sat up in distress.
"Oh, go away!" she cried. "Oh, Pip, how mad of you—dear Pip, you'll catch it!"
But he would not loose her hand.
"Will you?" he said.
She moved to put her arm round his neck, then remembered and shrank back.
"Why, there is nothing," she said; "it was you to forgive me—if you do I am more than glad; now do go, old fellow."
"Lie down," he said, standing up again ”